A few more for the list!

As Promised a few more Pics with just a few words with the list for Alpaca Seller in mind

Ivory, maiden female, ready for breeding, first place at Devon County
may have to be on the Sales list.

Lalique, another one bred to Jack of Spades, now it is either her or Iona but not both!

Mica bred to Caliban not on the list 

 Tigerlily, she is such a sweetie, probably could be persuaded to put her on the list

Cassini, pregnant to Golden Prospect, could be exciting, mum to Choc Ice and last years cria was female as well, Tiffany, she was on the list, possibly, maybe!

Olivia, pregnant to Caliban and on the list

I still have a few to photograph and then theres the cria but my Sales list doesn't look very big yet!

The Sun is out, the Sky is Blue

And about time too, I have spent the last few days listening to the weather forecaster telling me that is is glorious in Devon, when we have been living with cold, grey cloud with a bitter cold wind thrown in for good measure.  Today started of much the same but about mid morning a strange bright glow appeared and the sky became a strange blue colour, I think I remember it happening before but it was such a long time ago!  anyway it was a welcome change and did a lot to improve my mood after yesterday.

We have made a decision which I am sure will divide opinion but here goes.  Hummingbird was such a lovely girl and her fleece was such an amazing silver grey, not great quality, somewhat lacking in all those traits we hear the judges waffling on about and there was a lot of it.  As we have a Sheepskin processing plant locally to us we have decided to have her skin as a rug.

I did the feeding up this morning on my own as Steve was on a job (playing on his mini digger) it was a bit strange only the five cria but they all seem happy and thankfully healthy.  I even managed to take the camera and get some shots of the females, unfortunately the batteries in the camera ran out before I got back up to the cria so hopefully it will be dry tomorrow and I will get some shots of them.

The problem with taking pictures is that Caramel seems to think she has to be in all the pictures.  So it took some time to get shots of everyone who Steve says has to be put on Alpaca seller.

Caramel

Oh and this is Caramel

Yes Caramel again

Then some of the others whilst Caramel was otherwise engaged

Iona - maiden female bred to Lillyfield Jack of Spades, possibly going on the sales list.

Hebe, Jack of Spades Daughter bred to Wessex Mambo, really looking forward to seeing her cria so not on list until after she has produced (maybe)

Choc Ice maiden female not bred yet, even though she is cute she is probably on the list

Marietta (my favourite Alpaca) bred to Langaton Caliban, every cria she has produced has own a Rossette - definitely not on the list.

More photos tomorrow and I will have to start adding some to Alpaca Seller!

Short blog

Just a very short blog tonight as I don't really know what to say. We had to put Hummingbird to sleep this afternoon as she had got worst overnight and the Vet was called again, he diagnosed Meningitis, which he said was very rare.  That doesn't help much but at least we tried to do as much as we could.

A little worried

To say I am a little worried is an understatement really, I am very worried about Hummingbird our grey cria who is about 9 months old.  She was weaned three months ago and had been reintroduced to the herd with no problems until two weeks ago we weaned the rest of last years cria and decided to put Hummingbird with the rest of her piers, this would make halter training easier as all the weanlings would be in one place.
A few days ago we noticed Hummingbird was looking a bit lethargic and wasn't eating, every time we went to their paddock she was sitting down, not interested in anything.
Ok what could it be the rest of the group were all as bright as buttons, Worms?  gave here a dose of Zolvic, she picked at her food the next day but really wasn't any better, she had a dose of Vecoxen and we gave her a mineral drench.  still no improvement but no worst either. I was afraid she was becoming dehydrated so gave her a syringe of water a couple of times a day.  By now I was becoming a bit desperate so we thought we would try some Cows Colostrum just in case it would help.  After a couple of days and no improvement I wasn't sure what else to do next.  Last resort I tried some honey rubbed inside her mouth, well don't know if it was a coincidence but she was up and went straight to the hay bag, started nibbling.  There hasn't been much improvement since but I am going to continue with the Colostrum for a couple more days and she had another dose of honey today, she seems to be a bit brighter but who knows!

Why do we put our selves through all this?

Feeling off colour

It is still bitter cold here, the forecast said max temp 7 deg but it has only just got to 3 deg here,  we are at over 900 ft up on Dartmoor so it be expected really.

The females were all wormed with Zolvic on Sunday, yesterday most of them spent the day sitting around which is unusual as they had fresh grass and today one or two still look a little lethargic.  I was wondering if this could be due to the wormer having never used it before.  we have not had any reaction to any of the previous wormers we have used so I was really expecting them to have any problems.  If anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated as I was going to worm the weanlings next week.

The three males are still behaving themselves although I think they may have had a bit of a rumpus as there was a lump on fawn fleece on Calibans (white) back this afternoon.

Oh well better get the accounts done, VAT qtr ends this week, at least it is warm in here.

Basil has finally got it!

Brrrrrrr its b...y cold out there this morning, good job we had plenty to keep us busy.  First we fed the weanlings and moved there pen onto some fresh grass, Basil who had been feeding out of my had and then out of the scoop finally leant to put his head in to a bucket, all be it a very shallow bucket.  He ran off when he first felt me loosen my hold on him but soon when back to finish off the hard feed  left in the bucket, so hopefully tonight he won't need much encouragement.

Once the feed round was complete it was on to the females who had to be weighed and because we have had some dramatic weigh losses in the past few weeks which was worrying they have been wormed with the new wormer Zolvic.  Then it was on to the big move around, the girls were going up the lane in to our large lower paddock still out of sight of the weanlings but first we had to move the three Adult boys, Atlas and Prospect who are brothers live together over the track from Caliban our white Stud Male who really doesn't like Atlas & Prospect and has almost pushed the fence over before in his quest to get at them.
The plan was to move all three down the lane to a new paddock and put them together and let them sort out there differences.  So Caliban was loaded into the trailer first with the partition in followed by the other two.  Atlas & Prospect were released in to the field and did the usual inspection, then we put Caliban in, at this point I was expecting fire works but no, Prospect ran over to Caliban for a sniff and then walked off and we left all three exploring with no sign of any aggressive behaviour.  We spent the next hour or so moving respective hay racks, feeders etc just keeping an eye on the boys, still behaving even sharing a bucket when we fed them.  When we left they were all grazing peacefully, but I am keeping an eye on them with the camera while keeping the other eye on the Rugby.

So now we can rest the paddock we will use for birthing this year, get it cleaned up and chain harrowed when the time is right. Just need some dry sunny, warm weather please!

DIY SOS

Today has been frantic, our own fault really, we have been decorating the holiday cottages and had nearly finished the second one but had ground to a halt with lack of enthusiasm.  Today was D day as we had guests arriving this afternoon and the hall way in the last cottage needed paint on the walls.  So an early start was called for, steve painted and I cleaned the kitchen,, bathroom, bedroom, made up the beds and put the cream tea and fresh eggs in the fridge.  Three hours and we were done, all the decorating equipment was out the door and the cottage was finished.  Once we had packed away ladders, paint etc it was home for a well deserved cup of coffee.

We have had a house full for the last couple of days as it was eldest Grandsons birthday yesterday.  After the excitement of opening presents we all went off to feed the Alpacas and Llamas.  The weanlings have settled down, still a little humming when we arrive but I think thats for our benefit, just to make us feel sorry for them really.  Once the chores were done we all went off for a day at the Zoo, it was bitter cold but the boys were running about so didn't feel the cold like the oldies.  A lovely day was had by all but it was a welcome sight to see the woodburner still alight when we got back in.  A lovely cup of tea and a slice of birthday cake just to finish the day off nicely.